LITHA (21 June 2012)

The musick dedicated to this Sabbat is:

ANTONY AND THE JOHNSONS
ANTONY AND THE JOHNSONS

Original Issue: 2000 Durtro (DURTRO 050CD)
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Margot-meter: 5 moons / 5
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from The Sound Projector:
The first album by Antony and the Johnsons is a truly rare thing, a debut that doesn't merely show promise but announces the arrival of a fully formed, major talent. It's an extraordinary collection of modern torch songs, each one a perfect concentration of emotive vocals and vivid instrumental colors.

For bringing this beautiful creation to our attention, as for so much else, we have to thank David Tibet of Current 93, who was introduced to Antony in New York and, deeply affected by the then unreleased album, became his benevolent patron. The album appears on Tibet's Durtro label... This is not the first time that Tibet has given prominence via his label to wayward, neglected talents; English folk singer Shirley Collins, Krautrockers Sand and (more dubiously) Tiny Tim have all benefited from his patronage. But these were essentially archival releases, intended to make available once again records from the past which would otherwise have lain dormant. Antony, on the other hand, is utterly of the present; and yet his songs have a dreamlike, yearning quality that equally makes them timeless.

Antony sings his baroque texts in a richly soulful voice that could melt the stoniest of hearts, while the Johnsons deliver an inspired soundtrack of strings, piano, woodwind and percussion. The music's glorious emotional swell fortifies the listener even as the words tell unbearably of pain, death and atrocity. There is a dark anguish here that moves from nakedly personal confessions to tender elegies for lost friends and poetic meditations on the state of the world. Under Antony's sorrowful gaze, this anguish assumes an overwhelming density, weighing down these songs tragically and unforgettably. 

Richard Rees Jones

FULL STRAWBERRY MOON (04 June 2012)

The musick dedicated to this Esbat is:


BAIER SIBYLLE
COLOUR GREEN
 

Original Issue: 2006 Orange Twin Records (OTR022)

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Margot-meter: 5 moons / 5
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from http://www.gwarlingo.com:

One of my favorite discoveries this winter was the German singer Sibylle Baier. The story of how her wonderful record, Colour Green, came to be is as interesting as the music itself.

She grew up in Germany in the 50s and 60s. During a particularly low period in her early life, a friend tried to cheer up Baier with a road trip to Strasbourg and the Alps in Genoa. The excursion had a lasting impact. When she returned home, she wrote her first song, “Remember the Day,” in response to her travels with her friend Claudine.

Baier continued to write music for herself and her family. Between 1970 and 1973 she recorded a number of songs on a reel-to-reel tape recorder at her home in Germany. Although her music was featured in the film Umarmungen und andere Sachen, and she played a role in Wim Wenders’ 1973 movie Alice in the Cities. Baier chose not to pursue an acting or music career in the end. Instead, she moved to America and focused on raising her family.

These songs might never has seen the light of day if it weren’t for Sibylle’s son Robby. Some 30 years after Baier made these intimate recordings Robby compiled a CD of his mother’s early music to give to family members as gifts. He also gave a copy to J Mascis of Dinosaur Jr., who passed the disc along to Orange Twin, a record label in Athens, Georgia. In 2006 Baier’s music rightfully earned a loyal following when Orange Twin released the songs as the collection Color Green.

The fourteen original songs on the album feature Baier singing and playing acoustic guitar. There are no background vocals or session musicians; the recordings are just as she made them in the early 70s. It was a wise decision to let these lovely home recordings stand on their own–overdubbing only would have muddied her clear, pure vocals. Everything about Colour Green is memorable, most especially Baier’s unique, haunting voice and the intimate lyrics that tell simple stories about daily life.

Baier has a wonderful eye for small, everyday details. One minute, she sings about buttered bread, apple pie, and feeding the dog and cat, and the next, she is quoting the poet T.S. Elliott. And she shares these intimate details with none of the sentimentality or false nostalgia that mars so much acoustic folk music. Baier gently evokes the experience of riding in a car, coming home from work, or visiting the zoo with her daughter and son.

The fact that these songs were never meant for public consumption gives them an authenticity and sincerity that is frequently absent in most of today’s popular music. Baier’s straightforward style reminds us that political earnestness, irony, fancy production, and virtuoso musical talent aren’t necessary to create memorable, moving work. Nick Drake may be her closest equivalent, though early Leonard Cohen, Cat Power, and Vashti Bunyan also spring to mind. But in the end, such comparisons don’t do Baier justice. There is really no one else quite like her.

I’ve been recommending Colour Green to friends all winter. I’m only sorry that I didn’t discover this gem sooner. Baier is the perfect music for cold, snowy evenings by the fire (or huddled by the radiator inside your tiny, Brooklyn apartment). As the snow finally melts here in New Hampshire, I’m sure I’ll continue listening to Baier’s poignant descriptions of blue skies and “leg high grass.”

According to Sibylle Baier’s official website, the singer has been writing and recording some new songs since the release of Colour Green. Let’s keep our fingers crossed that fans will be treated to some new music before too long.

Michelle Aldredge

FULL FLOWER MOON (06 May 2012)

The musick dedicated to this Esbat is:

MOON LAY HIDDEN BENEATH A CLOUD (THE)

AMARA TANTA TYRI

Original Issue: 1994 Arthur's Round Table (ART 02)

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Margot-meter: 5 moons / 5
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from Amazon.com:

This is the second Moon Lay Hidden album, and it picks up right where their debut left off. The songs are sort of medieval, neo-martial trance. The anger and brutal honesty regarding Europe's history is still taking shape, but the instrumentation is awesome.

As always, the tracks are untitled. The songs have a cinematic feel, like a soundtrack for the Black Plague. Tolling bells, monastic choirs, film dialogue, and Alzbeth taking all the romance and whimsy out of the Dark Ages. The livelier tracks would fit right into Monty Python's "The Holy Grail."

Sometimes the lyrics are hard to make out. I recommend snagging a copy of "Alzbeth: The Book of Lyrics." It gives the translations where needed, and provides ALL the background on why The Moon Lay Hidden Beneath a Cloud has such a chilling style...many of their songs are little history lessons. Track 20 is a glorious war anthem, a strong climax for the album.

If you're a fan of Der Blutharsch, you'll wonder why his work in Moon Lay Hidden is better than his solo work that followed. As far as I know, Alzbeth hasn't released diddly-squat since TMLHBAC - guess she chose to get out at the top of her game. "Amara Tanta Tyri" is a good introduction to their legacy. Where Swans had that Bodies-in-the-Bayou style, Moon Lay Hidden reached into the past and unearthed just as many.


Scott Sweet

BELTANE (01 May 2012)

The musick dedicated to this Sabbat is:

CHAUVEAU SYLVAIN

LE LIVRE NOIR DU CAPITALISME

Original Issue: 2000 Noise Museum (nm051)

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Margot-meter: 5 moons / 5

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from All Music Guide:
 
Le Livre Noir du Capitalisme ("The Black Book of Capitalism," an obvious inverted reference to Chinese communist leader Mao's famous little red book) is the first solo album from Micro:Mega's Sylvain Chauveau. Released to little notice in May 2000 on Noise Museum, it gathered more attention upon its reissue by Disques du Soleil et de l'Acier two years later. It sure deserves the attention: It stands as one of so-called post-rock's most convincing achievements. Using melancholy melodies, light electronics, found sounds, viola and cello, piano, and accordion, Chauveau has encapsulated the full ethos of dreamy, cinematic post-rock music in his album. Tracks are short and ethereal, with evocative sound collages filling in whenever simple Erik Satie-esque melodies take a pause. Titles like "Et Peu à Peu les Flots Respiraient Comme On Pleure" (Little By Little the Waters Were Breathing Like One Cries), "Dernière Étape Avant le Silence" (Last Step Before Silence), and "Je Suis Vivant et Vous Êtes Morts" (I Am Alive and You Are Dead) brush a bleak portrait, but Chauveau's music never succumbs to raw, unmediated emotion. There is always a second or third level of analysis, and things are more complex and intertwined than they first seem to be -- like in real life or in a Jean-Luc Godard film (after all, isn't it his initials hiding behind the piece "JLG"?). Le Livre Noir du Capitalisme is a painfully personal work with a certain adolescent character (and yet so mature in the balance it reaches). That's why it provides a more compelling listen than the follow-up, Nocturne Impalpable.

LAMMAS MOON (05/14)

VARIOUS ARTISTS

LAMMAS NIGHT LAMENTS VOLUME 06
(A Collection Of Wyrd-Folk Music From 1966-1980)


Original Issue: www.theunbrokencircle.co.uk/

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Margot-meter: 5 moons / 5

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Tracklist (courtesy of http://www.dlc.fi/~hhaahti/Levyt/levyt_kok2.html):

the wicker man soundtrack: summer is a coming in
fresh maggots: rosemary hill
gagalactyca: merlin melaine est
milkwood tapestry: the bell of junip
dando shaft: an evening with rain
extradition: a water song
linda perhacs: parallellograms
shelagh mcdonald: stargazer
elyse: ’deed i do
trader horne: morning way
the trees: little black cloud
maitreya kali: black swan
wittuser & westrupp: schopfung
eclection: st georg & the dragon
red television: the ghost of emile zola

FULL PINK MOON (06 April 2012)

The musick dedicated to this Esbat is:

WERKRAUM

EARLY LOVE MUSIC


Original Issue: 2008 Ahnstern (Ahnstern23)

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Margot-meter: 5 moons / 5

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from Heathen Harvest:

Werkraum have completely shed the subtle martial spirit they showed in their first recordings and have moved deeply into folk. ‘Early Love Songs’ is the perfect collection of popular songs, troubadour notes and contemporary storytelling.

It actually reminds me much of a jumpy, epic yet close Jethro Tull that moves towards psychedelia instead of hard rock in its variety. Axel Frank counts on many collaborators for this record: Nick Nedzynski (Lady Morphia), Nicholas Tesluk and Robert N.Taylor (Changes), Antje Hoppenrath as well as Hajü, Herr Wind and Max Percht (from Sturmpercht) . Also, as homage to previous folk singers, ‘Early Love Songs’ includes to revisited versions; Donovan's Lewis Carroll poem in music ‘Jabberwocky’ and Steeleye Span's ‘The Blacksmith’.

There is a conglomerate of voices, especially in those songs sung by male ones, where the lively composition comes alive – where one can imagine the musicians together, relaying the voice to one another, in an organic, harmonious collectiveness. ‘Ein Lied von Lieb und Treu’ moves into a more neofolk feeling, where the wind instruments move through the song underlining the voice and swirling around the guitar. The structure is free, repetitive, rooted into the quality of music storytelling – a verse structure repeated into memory with an emotional quality to it, resulting in an extremely beautiful composition. ‘Die rechte Braut’ presents a similar structure, but in a more populistic way, with voices, flute and chords mingling together. ‘Santy Ano’ modernizes the folk song into a popular sound, with an almost western-like inspiration. Can you imagine what music would accompany a cart line, after hours of dusty road? This is it. Melodic voices, matter-of-factly emotive lyrics, crazy instrument uprisings. ‘The Dream’ might be one of the most psychedelic themes of the record. The undulating instruments come together with the partially singing – partially reciting voice. Synths and percussion mark the rhythm and, when you are being caught up in the composition, it becomes extremely short, feeling as though it could’ve gone on forever. ‘Beyond the Evening Star’ is a contemporary work of jester – a modern minstrel that tells a tale over groovy music, with a dark enticing voice and a quasi-jazzistic approach. It is followed by ‘The smiling of the rose’ which takes the music like a glove, almost as a continuation of the previous song. Then it develops, with a progressive, psychedelic use of bells, percussion and lingering voices.

In numerous songs a female voice takes over (‘La Marmotte’, ‘Slâfest du, vriedel ziere?’, ‘Der Schmied, ‘Une Jeune Fillette’’. The first one mentioned has a progressive feeling to it combining guitar arpeggios, harmonious, drum work and flute, as well as several chorus voices. The instruments mostly follow one another in an orderly, sensitive manner. The second female song is a ballad, full of longing and intimacy yet the third walks into the psychedelic folk path, with a fluctuating guitar work and a remarkable work in second voices, becoming the most prominent female song in the record, from my point of view. The last female song is ‘Une Jeune Fillete’, with a very medievalist approach. The song is constructed over violin and short, sharp guitar sounds.

‘Song for Erik’ is supposed to be the epic song of the record. It counts with an overture, where guitar and wind sound break into a superb arpeggio. The composition presents a master work in guitars, combining and flowing around other instruments while the voice sends a mantra over to the hero. The song is interrupted by sounds, vibrations, crisp energy, as if the air had gotten electrified before the storm. Is if perhaps Halfdan approaching? Or the stars shinning above a chosen one? ‘Allgemacht’ recuperates the sort of grandiose troubadour, graphic composition one can hear in ‘Song for Erik’ but even closer, more direct, and, regrettably, too short. ‘Sanctity and Steel’ closes the record moving again into a more modern style (such as ‘Beyond the Evening Star’ anticipated). It is the newer version of folk song. Pseudo rock n’ roll and flute lines. Tambourine and torn stories. Werkraum can do both, as they please. From classic to contemporary. From popular to unique. Folk in all its aspects.